Steps to consider to start and grow a company. Basics are provided to help entrepreneurs. Examples may relate to Biotech, Pharma and Medical Device businesses, but the ideas apply to most technology fields.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Working hard is not enough

This swan worked hard but never moved forward!

It is easy to work hard and accomplish little.The objective is to work hard and accomplish
great things.Employees or founders are
easily distracted and engage in activities that cause them to spend time and energy
achieving their objectives.Improper
objective identification by the team or the leaders complicates performance of
the business by producing less than desired achievements.The selection of objectives is up to the
leaders in some cases, but in research areas, the investigator often selects
the objectives within a broadly defined area.All assignments should fit a project or program plan along with
identified timelines.Monitoring the
teams’ efforts ensures meeting of goals and identification of any adjustments that
enable meeting of those goals.

Broad areas and objectives leave much room for creativity and
innovation.This is especially important
in certain areas where research is taking place.The process requires motivated scientists with
specific ideas to produce products rather than simple research results.However, there are cases where team members
do not possess the skill set to self-govern their own day-to-day activities or identification
of objectives.When this occurs, the employee
seems to work hard but never accomplish anything of value.It is also hard to gauge their progress or accomplishments.Efforts to improve outcomes can come from
extra guidance, a better outlining of programs, assignment of the person to
assist a more productive individual, or other such activities.However, this does not always produce the
desired result and sometimes makes good employees less productive.

The objective of the company leader must be to identify and separate
those that are salvageable from those that are not.Continued observation by others in the
company or by the manager of a non-productive employee eventually create a
reduced energy work environment.People
wonder why the individual receives the same pay and perks while producing
nothing.The company staff will always
measure their value relative to others.This
is not the most ideal, but it does happen.It works better when the team works hard and everyone sees each member
as key to the success of the business, and not someone that is dragging the
business to lower levels of productivity.

Helping others learn and develop in the business community is an
important part of a leaders function.Likewise, the rapid identification of those that one cannot retrain or reassign
is equally important.It is not easy to
request that someone depart the business, but it is part of running a business
effectively.The best you can do in such
cases is to treat people with respect and attempt to help them find something
for which they are better suited.

In short, you only have limited resources and time to build a startup
into a successful business.This
requires defining objectives toward development of products that create value
for the company.Meeting the timelines
and objectives are critical and serve as measures for investors gauging your
performance.Simply working hard is not
enough for your company or your employees.They must accomplish something of value in a timely manner and at a
projected cost.Each step must take you
to an improved level in the company, or you may just stay put forever.In this case, you as the leader are like the
employee that works hard but never accomplishes much.